OCT 14, 2021
Gabby Petito autopsy paints grim picture of last moments, experts say | Fox News
[...]
Dr. Dan Field, a board-certified emergency physician and an expert witness in strangulation and homicide cases, said killing someone by strangulation is a long, deliberate process.
[...]
... While the sequence of events leading to Petito’s death remains publicly unknown, Field said that statistically speaking, accidental strangulation between intimate partners is far less common than foul play.
[...]
"If you don't have an eyewitness, then you're going to have to build a circumstantial case," Field explained. "And if the circumstances place the two of them in the same place, at the same time or near the time of her death, that's circumstantial evidence that, he was involved in her death. Not proof -- but circumstantial evidence."
[...]
Strangulation can also be unplanned, emotional and impulsive, according to Dr. Ziv Cohen, a New York City-based criminal psychiatrist.
"Strangulation is a more intimate type of homicide, and so it generally points us in the direction of somebody certainly who knew her or who might have gotten physical with her," he said.
[...]
"If there's been evidence of some interpersonal violence previously, it raises the likelihood of homicidal strangulation to a much higher degree," he said, also bringing up the Moab incident. "So I know that there was some issues between the two. Apparently, they were fighting their way across the country in the van."
[...]
Petito also gestured in the bodycam video toward her jawline – which Salt Lake City-based private investigator Jason Jensen said earlier this week is a red flag indicating that she had previously been grabbed by the throat.
[...]
"There's a lot of evidence, from the 911 calls, from the witnesses at Merry Piglets, and I believe there were other witnesses, that their relationship was spiraling out of control," Cohen said. "There was conflict, verbal conflict, physical conflict, and certainly, I think that the Merry Piglets episode is significant in the sense that even other people were running afoul of Brian Laundrie."
[...]
"We know that he couldn't contain his behavior, even in a public place like a restaurant," Cohen said. "When we shortly thereafter find her strangled to death, it does suggest a kind of intimate type of homicide, domestic abuse, type of homicide between a couple -- and therefore certainly makes Brian Laundrie the main suspect."
Additionally, details about the crime scene that have not been publicly released could be a factor in what charges, if any, prosecutors eventually seek, Cohen said.
The positioning of Petito’s body could indicate remorse or cruelty, for example.
"That, again, is circumstantial evidence," he said. "But it could point to something that's more suggestive of intimate partner violence."
